All eyes were on Claire Pearson as she recited poems in the front of Karyl Goldsmith’s block 3 senior literature class on Tuesday, Dec. 3.

Six years ago, Pearson was in that same classroom as an AP literature student. On Tuesday, she was there as a distinguished guest, sharing her poetry slam style and giving tips to students before they participate in the school’s Poetry Out Loud contest.

As students anxiously tapped their Converses and put their hoods up around their heads, Pearson recited her poem, “Haunt Me Tender.”

“My stomach is a diving board above a Dead Sea of dish soap / sloshing over the edges / trying to absolve words I swallow / back when nervous sweats / turn my palms improbable jazz.”
Pearson’s second stanza was unintentionally ironic, considering many of the students in the class were nervous about having to memorize and publicly recite a poem for the upcoming competition — and they’re not alone.

According to a Psycom article from September, a study shows that the fear of public speaking, or glassophobia, is believed to affect 75% of the population. Many say adults fear public speaking more than death.

“What tips do you have for people that are shy?” one girl asked Pearson after she finished the poem.

“Look over the heads of people,” Pearson replied, adding that it gives the illusion that you are making eye contact. “Take it slow, have fun with it. Everybody’s nervous.”

The night before, students browsed through dozens of poems on the Poetry Out Loud website until they found one that spoke to them to memorize and perform. Ricardo Ontiveros Rosas chose “Spanglish,” written by Tato Laviera, which integrates Spanish and English showcasing cultural perceptions of one who speaks both. For Ontiveros Rosas, the poem rang true to his roots.

“That’s how everyday life is; it’s just Spanish and English kind of just mixed together,” he said. “I was brought here [from Mexico] when I was three years old and right now I’m in the DACA [Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals] program.”

Memorizing and sharing “Spanglish” out loud will be a way for Ontiveros Rosas to connect with the poem even further and express himself to the class.

“[The message is] basically just, be comfortable with any type of language you grow up with … if you grow up learning [dual languages] then try to understand that you’re smarter than you think because you’re able to learn [both],” he said.

Adapting speeches in a presentational setting, as well as assessing and understanding literature, are all required for Arizona seniors and juniors. With Poetry Out Loud combining these ELA common core standards in a challenging way for the students, it’s no wonder Goldsmith has been participating in the program for upwards of 15 years.

“They always hate [public speaking] and say they’re shy,” Goldsmith said of her students. “And they are [shy], but they rise to the challenge. It’s amazing sometimes who makes it to the final competition.”

Students can get to finals after being elected as the top speaker in their class, then winning one of the top three top spots in the school, judged by community members in the writing field at the SPAC. All judges choose winners based on the student’s physical presence, voice and articulation, dramatic appropriateness and evidence of understanding. If a student from SRRHS wins regionals in Flagstaff, they then head to Phoenix for the state championship.

“We’ve been in state probably more times than we haven’t been in state and we have never made it to nationals in Washington, D.C.,” Goldsmith said.

Pearson will be judging all the top SRRHS performers in the SPAC on Friday, Dec. 13 to help choose who goes to the 2020 regional competition in Flagstaff in March.

“I’ve always been really interested in poetry but I didn’t want to perform or memorize anything until Poetry Out Loud,” Pearson said. “[It] was my first instance of poetry memorization and performance. I thought it was the coolest thing.”

Goldsmith hopes that her current students will also see poetry as ‘the coolest thing’ and was able to help her cause by bringing in Pearson as an example of someone, not much older than themselves, who has made waves in the field, competing in the National Poetry Slam, Women of the World Poetry Slam and representing Northern Arizona at the Individual World Poetry Slam.

Pearson and Goldsmith were able to team up for the second year through the city-funded Artist in the Classroom program, in which artists from the community pair up with Sedona teachers to bring in different types of art to the classrooms.

“Artist in the Classroom is a lot of the teacher contacting the artist and then they work together to create a personalized lesson plan that’s very scenario by scenario,” Pearson said.

Besides bringing Pearson to Goldsmith’s classes to help her students learn about the spoken word and performance of poetry, Goldsmith also has a poetry club that meets every Monday at lunch.

“I just like to keep that fire burning since we don’t have a poetry class or a creative writing class. I kind of wanted to keep that outlet,” Goldsmith said.

Artist in the Classroom is especially helpful for supplementing the creative arts, which have been cut drastically in Sedona schools, by bringing in outside community members who are experts in their artistic fields into the classrooms.

For further information on Artist in the Classroom please contact Nancy Lattanzi, city of Sedona arts & culture coordinator, at nlattanzi@sedonaaz.gov or 203-5078.